


Unfinished Business

by Bananas45



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, BSG AU, Boxing & Fisticuffs, Drunk Sex, Drunken Confessions, I had to write this, If you haven't seen BSG it shouldn't matter, Infidelity, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith is so much like Starbuck, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Self-Indulgent, Voltron reminds me so much of Battlestar Galatica, no one has a nice time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 06:20:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17095430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bananas45/pseuds/Bananas45
Summary: “Now who’s biting of more than they can chew, Paladin?” Shiro snaps softly and there it is, anger, resentment, burning low under the calm exterior that is Shiro. His eyes snap down to Keith’s lips, so close the look alone makes them tingle.“Not me, Champion” He responds and for a moment Shiro’s gaze softens, like all those times back in the academy when things would get heated between them, until Shiro’s gaze would blend from aggravated to affectionate and he’d laugh it off. But he doesn’t laugh, he pushes past Keith with a hard hand to the shoulder leaving him stood alone.





	Unfinished Business

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this is a complete mess and really dumb. I basically realised so, so much of Keith reminded me of Starbuck from bsg and how similar his and Shiro's relationship was to Kara and Lees (and I loved that). I got thinking how similar their dialogue even sounds and so this weird creature of a fanfiction was born to placate my desire and I thought I may as well share it...even if it's weird and I basically lifted loads of dialogue from my favourite show into my second favourite show...  
> Who said creativity was dead?  
> It should make a vague amount of sense by itself but it's so inspired by Battlestar.
> 
> Anyway...Enjoy?

The world swims in and out of focus. The cheers and gurgles of an alien audience are muted to Keith as he lies in the makeshift bunk, hands buried deep in someone else's hair as he moans softly. The sweat that trickles down his neck is swept up by tongue before it reaches his collar and he shifts restlessly under the body on top of him.

Shiro gasps for breath, thrown back a little and off balance by the force of the feelings. He groans, breath forced out as he tilts his head back to let the world focus.

Keith doesn’t give him a moment to breath, even when the body under him asks. He spins them both so he stradling the other, taking what’s offered and not giving anything back. Though that’s Keith in a nutshell, isn’t it?

His vision focuses, readjusting to the bright light .

“Come on” he pants desperately. “Is that all you’ve got?”

The next throw is only just blocked.

“Mind elsewhere?” Lance asks, peppering kisses along Keith’s jaw as the other squeezes his eyes shut.  
“Shut up” Keith sits up and lets the blanket fall of his chest as he scrubs his face. A holler catches his attention from behind the steel wall. “I’m missing all the fun” he mutters, getting up.  
“Thought you said you weren’t interested in the fight?” Lance sits up on his elbows and his face is the same as always. That god damn confused look, puppy dog eyes that he thinks hide the knowing look.  
“Or is not the fight” Lance’s hands fall over his knees as he looks Keith in the eye. “Just who is fighting?”  
Keith shrugs, though it’s the truth.  
“Have you two spoken really?”  
“Nothing to say”  
“Keith-”  
“What?” He’s half way through pulling his tank top on, the hem rests just above his chest.  
“We haven’t spoken either, since he came back.” Lance’s tanned skin gleams in the sharp overhead lighting.  
“Well you clearly have something you want to say” Keith folds his arms.  
“We haven’t been the same” Lance murmurs. “I don’t doubt what you’re going through, Keith. Him gone, again-” Keith flinches just a little. “You becoming leader only to have him come back- but. I want us back, I want our relationship. I want a real relationship”  
Keith’s jaw works like he’s about to strike. His eyes flutter in that telling way they always do as he considers the worst of all his options.  
“And what if I’m just not ready for that?” He asks softly and Lance looks down, a smile on his lips even if it’s slightly pained.  
“Well, maybe you’ll never be” He swings his legs over the side of the bunk and Keith snorts softly.  
Keith thinks of it at first, when Shiro first disappeared- sure they’d shared looks before that, there had been tension- but then Shiro was gone again and god damnit, Keith needed someone. Lance had been there when he was made leader, Lance had been the hand on his shoulder he needed and all this, all this relief at Shiro being back was underlaid by the anger of him leaving in the first place.  
Idiot, Keith wants to snarl but he doesn’t say it to Shiro. Instead he looks at Lance with eyes not really meant for him as Lance murmurs.  
“Maybe I’m not what you want after all”  
Keith didn’t care. He had two things to think about tonight; fighting and fucking and neither required as much misery as his conversation with Lance.  
“Whatever” He sniffs, running a hand through his hair as he sweeps it back into a makeshift ponytail. He pauses at the door as he swings open the metal hatch. “Don’t overthink it, Lancey, you might hurt yourself.

It stings.

It looks like it does at least, the blow that Shiro takes his eyes meet Keith’s when he walks across the balcony. When Keith walks through the crowds that part for the paladin of the black lion - or the red or...whatever- He finds himself by the ring by the time the bell rings. Shiro is there, off course and in the crowd of whooping and cheery aliens he sees that the champion hasn’t lost his touch. His skin crawls, that’s unfair, he shouldn’t say that, shouldn’t go there.  
Pidge, glasses steamed from the muggy, oppressive atmosphere, slips between the ropes to crouch by Hunk’s side. She pushes an ice-pack against his cheeks.  
“Evening, Keith” She glances at him as he leans on the ropes. “Late to the party as usually”  
“You know me” Keith murmurs softly and his grip tightens on the rope as he sees Shiro, eyes dark and yet somehow bright even in the dim light. Keith clears his throat and looks away. “Quite a show we’ve got here”  
“Little R&R never killed anyone” Pidge rolls up her sleeves and flashes him a smile. “Except Hunk maybe” She pats his cheek and he gives an unenthused groan.  
“Thought you said you and Lance weren’t going to come” Hunk says between pants, he still has to shout over the holler of the crowd.  
“Well, seeing your ass get beat by Captain Shirogane is something I couldn’t miss” He manages. It’s always tough, remembering how close Lance and Hunk are, remembering that his sordid love affair could ruin a team dynamic nessaracry for saving the world. “And besides, I love a good fight”  
He’d been reluctant at first, they all had. They’d landed on the planet to deliver supplies, getting pulled into their strange underground fight club had been, mostly a mistake but it was an opportunity they were told by Coran to take advantage of.  
“Things get heated in war, feeling go unspoken. Sometimes it’s good to fight them out!” He’d said.  
Keith hadn’t cared for it but now that he’s staring at Shiro who’s rolling his shoulders, muscles glistening in the dusty light, dabbing away the blood on his lip. Keith feels blood lust well in himself.  
“Come on Champion!” Someone from the crowd roars and Shiro and Hunk are thrown into it again. Hunk’s punches, if landed would undoubtedly floor Shiro, but landing them is the problem and there's something terrifying about how in his element Shiro seems to be, how completely at ease he is, there is almost a sharp grin to his blood stained teeth as he jabs and jabs, right hook, left hook. Keith murmurs every single move before it lands, he knows Shiro’s patterns better than he knows his own. His skin swells with nostalgia as he remembers the days where they use to spar.  
Hunk lands an impressively hard blow to the side of Shiro’s head and Shiro crumples to the ground, right by Keith’s face. They haven’t spoken really, not probably, Shiro died again and left for god knows how long and came back more changed that before, came back like nothing mattered then acted like there was nothing wrong with how Black didn’t want him back, acted like the whole thing was a walk in the park. Keith’s just being stubborn.

“Because your just a pilot and I’m just your leader”  
He winces at the memory at the look on Shiro’s face, the intensity of his glare.

Shiro’s eyes meet his as he falls. With only the rope to keep them apart, Shiro’s eyes say so much more than his words ever do but it’s not enough anymore, not when he’s given Keith a taste. Not when they’ve been as close as they have. Keith feels his breath stutter, like it always it does when Shiro looks at him like that, with that blazing intensity under layers of trained repression.  
“Get up” he hisses softly. “Get up, Takashi”  
And Shiro does. From there it descends fast, Shiro is unparalleled i’n his fighting but he’s also vicious, a thing people always forget- Keith doesn’t, Keith never forgets and on top of that, vicious betting on hand to hand combat was an entire year of Shiro’s life and when the fight ends, when the bell rings and that look of triumph in Shiro’s eyes fades to muted horror, he doesn’t let the ref hold his hand up, instead he jumps the rings and heads to the box with their garrison tags, mismatched with identification from all corners of the universe and begins to rake around, tail between his legs even with his victory.  
“Seems Hunk bit of a little more than he could chew” Keith moves behind him, close enough that he can smell the sweat, can see every little upcoming bruise on his forearms from the well timed blocks. Shiro just shakes his head a little bit, pointedly ignoring Keith’s words. “Pulling your name out so soon?” he smiles, though his hearts not in it, bitter and twisted on his face in a way that a few years ago Shiro would have corrected.  
Shiro turns, just a little and there is an indescribable look on his face.  
“I’m done, Keith”  
And it makes his blood boil. The sigh in the others voice, the pained look of ‘I can’t do this’ well guess what, Shiro, I can’t either. He wants to scream how unfair this is. But he doesn’t. Instead he decides to be just as unfair in response and holds out his garrison dog tags.  
“I’m not”  
Shiro turns to him and there is fire in his eyes, their breath mingles and no one looks, too enthralled by the atmosphere and the tang of blood in the air to notice the two of them. Keith can’t hold back the exhale of breath, he’s always been desperate when it comes to Shiro, he’s never been able to hide it. Desire is a shadow, a horrible shadow Keith has never been able to shake.  
“Now who’s biting of more than they can chew, Paladin?” Shiro snaps softly and there it is, anger, resentment, burning low under the calm exterior that is Shiro. His eyes snap down to Keith’s lips, so close the look alone makes them tingle.  
“Not me, Champion” He responds and for a moment Shiro’s gaze softens, like all those times back in the academy when things would get heated between them, until Shiro’s gaze would blend from aggravated to affectionate and he’d laugh it off. But he doesn’t laugh, he pushes past Keith with a hard hand to the shoulder leaving him stood alone.

They’ve always had a spark between them. From the get go. Regardless of how wrong it had always been and maybe this has been building for years or maybe it’s just about the black lion or maybe it’s about nothing at all except pent up frustration at the situation, not each other.  
It’s always hard to know whether to start at the top or the bottom in the list of grievances Keith has.<

“So you are the hotshot pilot Takashi keeps talking about”  
Shiro smiles and leads Keith into his living room with a guiding hand. Adam smiles brightly, brighter than anything Keith has seen and it paints Shiro in an entirely different light. Shame coils around him.  
“Hotshot is one word for it” Shiro pours drink by the counter - though his memory of the night is fuzzy - “Pain in my ass is another”  
Keith grins a little, just the up quirk of a lip as Adam sits him down.  
“I hear you beat all his scores on the sims” Adam glances back, waggling an eyebrow under his glasses. “I bet he’s livid. He’s much more competitive than he lets on. I mean we only got together after I beat him sparring-” Adam cuts himself off, eyes suddenly changing, the warmth in them leaving a little as his brow knits. “I uh...What was I saying?” he forces a laugh even if it’s unsettled.  
Keith’s stomach drops.

“I heard about your little ‘dance’”  
He’s brought back to the present by Allura, hand on his shoulder. She smiles, wide and heart felt even if she stands out like a sore thumb in the crowd of drunken, fight hungry, aliens.  
“Oh you did?”  
“Accidentally I might add” She quirks her eyebrow like she’s halfway towards angry.  
“Didn’t seem your thing” He says, feeling guilty that they snuck of the castle to beat the living shit out of each other without telling their commanding officer.  
“My father was an avid fight fan, I adored my father so I love a good fight” She looks over, grinning a little as the next fighter is floored. “I didn’t think you’d have anyone to fight, not with Lance not here”  
He pointedly keeps his eyes away from Shiro, sat and laughing with some blades member Keith doesn’t recognise.

“Do you drink, Keith?”  
Keith glances between Adam and Shiro, unsure what to say.  
“Only to excess”  
Adam laughs at least, even if the air still feels oddly tense, like Adam knows something Keith doesn’t - or Keith knows something and Adam knows too - or Shiro knows something Adam knows.  
But alcohol always makes these situations better.  
Right?

Shiro dies for a whole year. Presumed dead way beyond the red line and It broke Keith’s heart and then they were face to face and tasked with saving the whole god damn universe and they didn’t get a heartbeat just to talk.  
They’re running caps around a cruiser that is carrying important artifacts that the Galra can’t get their hands on and shooting down the fighters that come unrelentingly is taking its toll. It’s been almost five days without sleep when Allura begrudgingly decides to give them 10,000 year old altean stimulants, Keith has some issues.  
It’s impossible to keep all five of them out at once and they’re tired and angry. None more so than Keith, obviously.  
Shiro comes up behind him as he checks Red, head full of war strategy and - fuck did he just drift off?  
“Hey, did you get Allura’s message?”  
For the first time in a long time Shiro’s voice is grating and irritating and everything Keith does not want to hear.  
“Uh- yeah, I said no way. I’m not flying on stims”  
Shiro’s shoulders drop, the resigned look in his eyes someone resigning some more.  
“Come on, Keith-”  
His stomach turns in an unpleasant flush of anger.  
“I don’t fly on stims, Shrio. They bunch up your reflexes, your reaction time-”  
“Just gimme a break-”  
And it snaps something delicate in Keith because, god damn it, they almost lost each other for good and all Shiro seems to have time for is being the leader and yet he still acts like this is all fine. all ‘be careful out there, team’ and bright smiles. ‘Team’ Jesus, he barely knows the others, not like they know each other. It was always Keith and Shiro, all the way, not Shiro and his four buddies one of which happens to be Keith-  
“Why are we still arguing about this?!” Keith barks, hand on the side of Red if only to stop from balling at his side.  
“I have no idea” Shiro laughs in that easy, charming way he always does and it makes Keith want to throw something at him.  
“Well you’re the leader. Act like one” Keith snaps back, venomous and childlike. Hunk and Pidge, looking over something in the hanger bay stop chatting. The silence is potent.  
“What the hell does that mean?” Shiro’s tone matches the Lieutenant Keith remembers from the academy and it eases something primal in him, even as he marches face to face with him with a sigh.  
“It means your still acting like your everybodies best friend. We’re not friends, you’re our leader.” He rubs his forehead before he scoffs “Be careful out there? Our job isn’t to be careful out there, it’s to shoot Galra out the god damn sky. Good hunting is what you say. And now, one of your idiot pilots is acting like a child and refusing to take his pills. So he either says ‘yes sir’ and obeys a direct order or you smack him in the mouth and you drag his sorry ass down to sick bay and you make him take those pills”  
Shiro stares, jaw set and eyes on Keith’s as Keith tries to control his breathing and his rage in the face of Shiro’s stony, annoyingly professional apathy. Then, as always - while others deal with Keith’s anger like defusing a nuclear bomb- Shiro just chuckles.  
“Well” It pulls at his cheeks until he’s laughing “I’m glad I’m not working for you”  
And damn it, just seeing Shiro laugh under the trauma and the tired look in his eyes makes Keith’s whole face light up, tears in the corner of his eyes from how hard he begins to laugh too.  
“Damn right you’re glad” He manages and Shiro lets out another wheeze of a chuckle as Keith puts a hand on his shoulder. The touch makes Shiro breath in sharp through his nose as he tilts his head to catch Keith’s eyes.  
“So, do I have to smack you in the mouth, Cadet?” It’s playful, reminiscent of a time long gone and it makes Keith’s legs shake, remembering the feelings he had back then, alighting something he spent a year chasing and months trying to forget.  
“No sir” He clears his throat, smile wide as Shiro quirks an eyebrow “I’ll take my pills”  
Shiro pulls them out his flight suit and twirls them in his fancy- ass new arm.  
“Oh, perfect” Keith says.  
The look they share, the touch of their hands is enough to make Keith’s breath shake on his exhale and when Shiro walks away, gaze flickering down to Keith’s lips as he murmurs his thanks. The look Hunk gives him as Pidge stares at the floor, lips pursed to stop from laughing, genuinely make Keith flush with embarrassment.  
“What?” He snaps.  
Hunk shrugs as Pidge snorts.  
Within a week it feel as though the whole team knows how Shiro can melt Keith in a matter of seconds.

Allura is staring at him still, over the flash of lights and the smell of sweat.  
“You and Lance are okay aren’t you?” She says.  
“Dreamy” Keith answers and he doesn’t mean to sound as bored as he does.  
“And what are you here for tonight?” She asks him and her gaze follows his to Shiro.

“You’re the black lion Paladin now”  
Oh my fucking god. Do they have no idea how wrong that is? How offensive it is to Shiro?  
But they do all realise and they pussyfoot around Keith like he’s some wild animal because in the back of their heads they realise that the last time this happened, Keith ran away for a year and no one saw him again. Allura even loses her footing as leader, off course she does, it’s impossible to lead and help and do, well, everything at once.  
Lance approaches him first, with all the tact he can muster.  
And maybe it’s because nothing feels real, because the whole world is slipping away from him in the same way it did for the others when they first arrived at the castle of lions - the way it didn’t happen for Keith because all he could think about was Shiro, Shiro, Shiro and not how he may never return to earth.  
They get horribly drunk, him and Lance, in a hopeful attempt to lighten the mood. It doesn’t work. Not really, not at all. All it makes Keith think about is that night back on Earth.

“You have class tomorrow” Shiro warns.  
“And I never let my hair down” Adam replies.  
“Now we’re talking” Keith’s hand, way too young to pouring shots, shakes as he refills their glasses.  
“You’ve made my boyfriend as bad as you” Shiro says, despairing through his haze. “You are an infectiously bad influence”  
Keith holds back a giggle. “Off course, sir”  
Adam smiles, though it’s distant and Keith can’t help but smile back. He was worried Adam didn’t like him but maybe he’d been wrong, maybe it was a weird vibe, now that they’re all shit-faced everything seems nicer.  
“Shiro doesn’t know how to have fun-” Adam says.  
“Not true” Shiro takes his shot.  
“But he’s also the most reckless man I think I’ve ever met” Adam adds, a gentle, chiding smile in his voice and Shiro smiles back, eyes hazed with affection.  
“Well, someone's gotta keep me grounded”  
They’re perfect for eachother, Keith realises and it burns like a supernova to the face.

It’s the memory that makes him kiss Lance as hard as he does and Lance, glass still in his hand looks bewildered.  
And he goes easily, off course he does, this is Lance we’re talking about and there has always been something between them. Something Keith always chose to ignore.  
It’s not taking advantage, it’s just noticing. Shiro’s hands would be bigger on his hips, would leave more of a mark than Lance’s slender ones. He’d pin Keith harder, with more intensity, with some murmur of how wrong this is, cadet. Lance pulls back.  
“Hey, hey, hey” He manages as Keith sweeps everything off the dining table to pull Lance on top of him. “What’s going on” it’s filled to the brim with fucking sympathy and concern and it’s like a slap to realise just how much Lance cares. “Keith, hey” He catches his cheek in a caress.  
“What is wrong with you?” Keith hisses, pushing himself up onto his elbows as he stares at Lance, who looks back like a kicked puppy. “Y’know what, I don’t wanna know” He rolls away, leaving Lance to stare at the counter where he was a second ago. “I do not wanna know” He chuckles.  
“Hey!” Lance shouts, grabs his wrist even as Keith turns on him with that Galra rage that makes Lance step back. “What about us?”  
Keith almost glows incandescent with rage.  
“What about us?!” He almost shrieks. “There is no ‘us’. There is nothing here” He motions between them. “You get that? Nothing! I just wanted a quick lay!”  
Lance’s jaw clenches, eyes flickering with tears for just a moment before he schools himself and Keith is too angry and humiliated, at himself, at Lance, at Shiro, to do anything about it.  
“Sure” he mutters, moving past him to get his shirt, strewn beside the plates and cups they tossed aside from dinner.  
“My god” Keith buries his head in his hands. Even that one word that ‘sure’ has so much sympathy in it that it makes Keith’s blood boil.  
“Well that’s just great” Lance says, a little louder now as he comes up behind Keith. “Fuck or fight? Okay, maybe I am just a quick lay but, Keith, I’m also your friend-”  
“I am hung up on a dead guy!” Keith shouts and suddenly there are tears in his eyes, suddenly he’s shaking “And it’s pissing me off” He drops his head and lets out a puff of air. “And I don’t know what I’m doing...”  
“Shiro, right?” Lance’s voice sounds hoarse “Ever since we left him behind-”  
“I don’t want your pity-” Keith snarls and it’s feral, deep and bellied within him.  
“You haven’t got my pity!” Lance shouts back and it’s so startling, so clearly not a joke or a gentle jest or any of the other things Lance usually gives him. Lance is pissed and it shows and somehow that makes Keith breathless. “Y’know, Keith.”  
Keith swallows, backed against the wall he lets Lance’s anger wash over him.  
“You are fine with the dead guys, it’s the living ones you can’t deal with”  
He lashes out before he knows what he’s doing and the punch lands on Lance’s jaw with a sickening crunch.  
Yeah, It’s not your classic love story. But nothing Keith touches will ever be nice or dreamy, he came to terms with that years ago.

“You broke my boyfriend” Shiro wheezes with laughter, cheeks flushed red as they drop Adam onto the couch with a thump. He leans on Shiro with a moan of defeat.  
“You broke your boyfriend!” Keith chuckles, moving Adam’s arm from around his shoulder.  
“The shots were your idea-”  
“Who’s the senior officer in this room?” Keith puts a finger on his lip and Shiro stares for a moment before breaking into a fit of giggles.  
“Who’s still to drink their next round?”  
They stumble back to the table and Keith has to rest his head on the cold glass of it before he can think about moving.  
“Light weight” Shiro says and his voice has a challenge in it. Hidden under all his professionalism Keith thinks him and Shiro are awfully alike.  
“What’d you just say?” He slurs, sitting up to stare into Shiro’s eyes, swimming black in the dim lighting.  
“Light weight” Shiro repeats and Keith’s face breaks out into a soft grin.  
“Ah...haha. Good one, Shiro. Just, gimme a moment to finish beating your sim scores before I drink you under the table”  
“Oh, Low blow, Kogane” Shiro holds his heart and lets his gaze level with Keith’s. Something passes between them then, something soft and gentle that makes Keith’s whole body melt.

He’s pulling his punches, Keith realises as he lands practice blows on Pidge’s held up hands. The night is doing strange things to them all but it’s been such a tough few months that Keith- as their leader - can’t blame them. He watches Lance and Hunk go at it with an apathy that shows his real lack of leadership. He watches Shiro watch him and look on with a disgust he’s never seen in Shiro before. Go fuck yourself.  
“Ow-” Pidge gasps as her wrist bends awkwardly.  
“Sorry” Keith manages.  
Allura is still watching him too, watching with a rage that matches Shiro’s and my gods, if they all hate him so damn much than maybe they should just throw him out into space. Shiro could take back the black lion instead of awkwardly butting heads with Keith.  
It must hurt them all in their own unique ways that Shiro isn’t the leader he needs to be, that Allura is relegated to a job she didn’t know she wanted and that Keith is thrust into a position he clearly isn’t ready for. But Keith is selfish and this, all this, has never been about the universe, it’s always been about Shiro.  
Allura ends the night, tells them all to go back to the ship with that steely cool look in her eyes that she gets from being naturally born to lead them. If only, if only the black lion had chosen her.  
If only.  
Lance’s gaze meets Keith’s it somehow makes the whole thing so much worse.  
This can’t end here. He needs Shiro to realise, is desperate for SHiro to know-

Shiro grimaces “You’re tempting fate”  
Keith grins. “If I have a fate” he taps the table “Then it is set. Thinkin’ about it ain’t gonna make it happen any faster-”  
“Woah, woah, Keith” Shiro holds up a finger as he blinks in a drowsy drunken haze. “Fair enough but flying, while you’re thinking about dying? It’s a bad way of doing business, trust me. You’ll get scared and then you’ll start second guessing yourself-”  
Keith laughs, open and free and it makes Shiro’s gaze shift in a way Keith can’t bring himself to look at.  
“I’m not scared” He murmurs, head meeting the table as he stares up at Shiro.  
Shiro’s mouth is open for a good few seconds as he processes the words.  
“Y-You said you think about dying...every time you get in a cockpit”  
“Uhuh” Keith manages, eyes droopy shut for a moment.  
“Well, Hello” Shiro chuckles and suddenly they’re so close that Keith can feel his breath.  
“Yeah but it doesn’t scare me, Takashi, that’s what you don’t get” His name rolls of Keith’s tongue before he can help it and suddenly the closeness feels like a solid object, feels like some magnetic pull. Feels like going into a nosedive and letting the plane judder as it’s dragged towards the inevitable.  
‘pull up, pull up, pull up, Cadet!’  
Shiro’s eyebrows knit as he leans closer still.  
“So what? It’s Keith Kogane, Fearless warrior. Is that it?”  
Keith’s smile splits his face as he laughs. “Eh...no. I know fear” and something about his voice makes Shiro’s hand fall onto his shoulder “And i get scared” He swallows because he’s scared right now, scared of ruining this, scared of what Shiro makes him feel, scared of the intimacy he brings and even worse, scared of losing it. “Just not about dying”  
“Then what does scare you?” Shiro tilts his head.  
and all Keith wants to say is losing you but he grins instead.  
“That’s a secret, Takashi Shirogane”  
Shiro grins.  
“Classic Keith” He downs his drink “All defense”  
“All defense?” Keith chokes.  
“Yeah” Shiro laughs, eyes crinkling as he spins the glass around in his fingers. “Tell me what your thinking”  
Keith flushes and his heart hammers, even if he’s punch drunk, even as the world swims in and out of focus, even as knows, somewhere not to let his guard down now - You’ll ruin it all, Kogane.  
He still does it.  
“Fine” he stands and Shiro tips back against the chair with a lazy grin. “You and me. Right here, right now”  
Shiro doesn’t look surprised, not at all, but his eyes darken just a little.  
“On the table?” He taps it and chokes on his own dumb laugh.  
Keith doesn’t care, it’s endearing, it’s sweet. His own breath is a mess, his own thoughts strewn, Shiro wants him and that’s enough to fill every crack in his soul, every defense ruined.  
“I dare you” He says softly.  
Shiro smirks.  
And back then it had seemed like it was him that made Shiro do it. Not Shiro’s insatiable urge for unattainable things. If he’d known, at this point, Shiro was the type of man to run to the other side of the universe while dying just to get a chance to do what he loved. The type of man to throw away chances at saving the said universe for a princess who told them not to save her; then he’d have known he’d set a challenge for Shiro he had to meet.  
“I double dog dare you” He stumbles as he takes a step closer, jacket falling off his shoulder.  
“Double dog dare?” Shiro echoes with a chuckle before standing too. Nose just brushing Keith’s as he does. It’s like a punch to the gut and without even kissing, Keith lets out an almost desperate moan. Shiro giggles as a hand wraps around Keith’s waist, hoisting him up onto the table as he pushes him back.  
When their lips meet it’s beautiful, it’s everything Keith wanted and more, it’s disarming and enchanting and Shiro knows exactly what to do to make him moan. He ends up canting his hips desperately, ends up thrusting his tongue into Shiro’s waiting mouth as Shiro cradles his skull. It feels so good, it feels so goddamn good-  
His hand slips and their glass clatters to the ground.  
“Oops! Something’s broken” Is the garbled reply for the sofa, less than metre away from where they are. Where Shiro’s boyfriend lies, half asleep and drunk.  
God what are they doing?  
Shiro gets off him instantly, guilt and sobriety ripping through him at once as he takes a shaky breath.  
“I-I” Keith retreats first, as always, back into his defenses. “Should go”  
“Y-yeah” Shiro says, soft and broken. “Uh, yeah”

He left for kerberos a month later.  
and off course they never spoke of it.

“Hey! Hey!”  
His own voice is more of a scream as the chance to punch Shiro in his goddamn square, perfect jaw, slips away. Allura has left with the others and they are meant to be back on the castle, meant to be leaving. It was an order.  
“It’s over, Keith” Shiro sighs gently, walking away from the ring.  
“So what? you’ve got the guts to cheat with me but not to fight with me?”  
He watches Shiro tense because that is a place they’ve never gone, a thing they’ve never touched, no matter how heated things got. Keith knew better than to push those buttons.  
“I wonder what Adam would have thought” Keith snarls, not just pushing, slamming his whole hand on the goddamn control panel. “Think he would’ve settled for sloppy seconds?”  
SHiro whirls around and Keith only catches the light from the arm before the metal impacts his cheek, sends him spiralling. Keith can categorically say, Shiro has never hit him so hard. He can taste the blood.  
A few gasps form around them as the crowd parts, Keith just catches himself on the edge of the ring before he falls flat on his face.  
Shiro is at his side in an instant, tilting his head up to check the wound, breath laboured but controlled as he stares at the damage he did. Apologises already on his lips.  
“Truth stings don’t it?” Keith manages, even as Shiro’s hand touches his split lip with all the care and attention he wants. His jaw sets, eyes full of fury.  
“You want a fight, Paladin?” Shiro’s voice is gravel by his ear. “You got it”

The fire light flickers beside them and Keith looks over. Don’t die on me now, not again.  
“You once told me” Shiro says, clutching his wounded side as they lie side by side in the dirt, hungry and exhausted “That if you had a fate, then it’s set. Maybe this is it, Keith”  
Keith swallows. Heart pumping and stomach churning as the feelings he forgot well up.  
“Why...Why bring this up now?” Keith thought Shiro had forgotten, had forgotten the whole night, that it was all just one massive fuck up on Keith’s part.  
Shiro stares at him and then shifts closer, just a little closer. Keith’s breath puffs into the cold air around them.  
“Why not?” His hand comes to Keith’s cheek and he lets out a breathless moan.  
“Don’t ask me that” Keith snaps but it’s softer, more pleading than he means it to be.  
“Classic Keith” Shiro murmurs, almost against his lips. “Always on the defense”  
“Maybe because I’m always watching someone’s back” Keith whispers back even as Shiro cups his cheek.  
Shiro laughs and almost as a thank you, closes the gap between them.  
Keith falls apart at the seams.  
Years spent dreaming of this, of hoping, followed by the despair that those same feelings caused and now, he’s here, really here and the whole world might be falling apart around them but god damn it Takashi Shirogane is here and wants him.

But here they are now, circling each other as the crowd is whipped up into another frenzy - the black paladins of voltron, fighting it out - Keith is grinning, eyes feral and Shiro is trying not to see the Galra in him. He’s a little afraid of himself, off losing control, as he always does around Keith.  
“Come on” Keith goads “You afraid to hit me?”  
Block, thrust, jab and Shiro takes one to the nose.  
“Or maybe you can’t”  
It sets Shiro off and blocking him is harder than the Garrison days when he was clearly holding back. Now, Shiro takes everything out on Keith. Gets him in the sides when he blocks his face, gets him in the face when he’s on the offense.  
Allura, watching, seethes with restenment. Keith can almost feel it from where he tries to break Shiro’s lock on his neck.  
Lance walks up behind her.  
“What are they doing?” He almost shrieks, eyes wide.  
“What’s it look like” Allura sighs. Other than disobeying a direct order.  
“Looks like they’re trying to kill each other” Lance mutters.  
“That’s one perspective”

“Shiro....Shiro”  
He gasps it in between tears as they lay on their clothes, fire dying beside them. He can’t help but be overwhelmed as Shiro kisses him senseless, even as he rides his hips and feels full and complete for the first time in his life.  
“Gods, Keith” He whispers against his skin, taunt as he pulls his hips up.  
They’ve always ended up being everything to one another. Keith was all he thought about when he was held prisoner for that year and Shiro was all Keith thought about when he was a prisoner to his grief.  
It’s perfect, as the sun sets over them, as they hold each other close.  
“Why now?” Keith asks softly, in the afterglow while they lay in eachothers arms.  
“Because I realised how much you mean to me, how much you’ve always meant to me. I guess I just never realised in what way” Shiro says, voice shaking like he’s on the verge of tears.  
“Because of Adam?” Keith asks, voice full of guilt, he winces against Shiro’s broad chest.  
“because of a lot of things”  
They end up screaming their love to the stars. Shiro, delirious from the pain of his injury and on a high from just being alive and Keith, finally feeling something after all these years, something that he can put a name too.  
“I love you, Takashi Shirogane”

It’s so dumb.

The morning afterwards they get dressed and barely speak. ‘For Voltron’ is what they’re both thinking. For Voltron and then they’re thrown into dangerous situation after suicide mission until finally they’re telling him again;  
‘Shiro’s gone, Keith’  
This isn’t his fate. This can’t be it. To love someone who’ll always let you down. To chase him to the ends of the universe only to always lose his grip on him.

Keith hits the deck, body crumpling as he tries to sit up on his elbows. He’s not going to win this, Shiro’s arms are no match to his. He’s losing, he’s losing and Shiro s staring down at him. The crowd are cheering and Keith feels the anger again. If only Shiro hadn’t acted like he cared so much, not when he had Adam, if only he hadn’t kissed him a month before he died, if only he hadn’t slept with him before he died again and to say that Keith is the one with the defenses up? When he never, ever dares to address the things that are so blatant between them. He kicks Shiro’s legs out from him before he knows what he’s doing.

‘That’s cheap, Keith’  
Shiro lays on his back as Keith gets up, pumping his gloves together.  
‘Real fights don’t go like that, Shiro’  
‘but this isn’t a real fight and you’re going to fail class if you kick some poor cadets legs out from under them. Patience yields focus. You know that’

Shiro’s anger, he knows where it’s from.  
‘he’s always been competitive’ Adam’s words echo like a omen in his ears.

“It’s so good to have you back” Lance says, arms slung round Shiro as he hugs him close, Shiro’s long hair and wild eyes not quite processing it and then he slings an arm around Keith and Shiro notices, grey eyes taking in it all.  
“Are you two...” Shiro managed. “You two are together”  
“Yeah” Keith says, eyes locked on Shiro's as he tries not to remember everything.

Left hook, left hook and another in the side as Keith begins to fall apart, gasping and trembling, he embeds a knee in Shiro’s side to shake him off and then roundhouse kicks him for good measure. Shiro is barely fazed.

“Yeah, uh, just...Uh kinda happened” Lance laughs, weak as he notices the look they exchange. “Do you guys want a minute...to y’know, talk?”  
Shiro blinks and just like that he’s professional again.  
“No!” He smiles. “Congratulations, Lance and good luck” he stares at Keith. “You’re gonna need it”

How dare he, after all this time, after making him wait for years, after teasing and teasing how dare he try and pin this all on Keith Kogane’s terrible decision making.  
But he’s so tired, so tired and still so desperate.  
His punch barely makes an impact and Shiro’s knocks him back, so hard it almost sends him sprawling. The crowd wince, silent now save the odd intake of breath.  
He’s bleeding everywhere, mouth and broken nose dripping blood onto the mat below as he shifts his stance and goes in for a right hook. Shiro catches his arm in a lock that drops their fists onto each others shoulders.

Keith remembers the first time they saw the stars together, when Shiro had promised to never give up on him.

Another blow lands and Keith stumbles.

He remembers them alone for the first time in a year as he tried to let himself believe Shiro was really here, really in his house.  
“I thought you were dead” all he manages say when they’re finally alone.  
“Well, I presumed you’d be in a hack”

Their hips collide as Shiro catches him before he falls this time, pulling him close into a hug that Keith fights in, fist still trying to make an impact on Shiro’s side. Don’t do this to me again, Shiro.

“I’ll never give up on you, Keith”

“and I’ll never stop saving you”

They end up exhausted, leaning on each other for support as they breath in heavy, gasping sobs. Shiro’s here again, solid and real and god, that’s all that matters in the end.  
“I missed you” Keith whispers, soft and genuine into the warm shoulder beneath him. Tears and blood falling indiscriminately down his cheeks.  
“I missed you too” Shiro whispers and it’s broken and sobbing. It makes Keith hold on tighter because Shiro can break too, Shiro can be weak and need someone and Keith had been too self involved to see it.

Maybe it’s fate that they end up doing this dance forever, straying too close to each other only to have the other ripped away but it doesn’t matter because Shiro is here, back and holding Keith close.

“I missed you too”

**Author's Note:**

> Is anyone else seeing how similar they are?? Not just Shiro and Keith but loads of things!! Maybe I'm going mad...


End file.
